The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has embarked on an anti-tobacco campaign in the Volta Regional capital of Ho, to commemorate this year’s World No Tobacco Day.

The campaign commenced with a medical outreach in the Ho market, providing essential outpatient department services to traders and shoppers as well.

They undertook screening for lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and other tobacco-triggered non-communicable diseases.

A team embarked on a one-on-one interaction with traders and shoppers to educate them on tobacco, its harmful defects on the human body after long term use and the need to abstain from it.

The Director of the Tobacco and Substances of Abuse Division of the FDA, Dr. Mrs. Olivia Boateng said the outreach which was in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, would complement efforts in bringing the prevalence of the use of tobacco down to the barest minimum.

“For now, Ghana laws allow [the sale and use of] tobacco. But provisions that we are enforcing make sure the prevalence comes down. It is pegged at 4 after rigorous implementaion of the provisions”, she said.

Mrs Boateng underscored the FDA’s determination to ensure unregistered, unregulated, and illicit products do not flood the Ghanaian market, adding that people identified to be dealing in such products would be made to face the laws.

The Volta Regional Director of the FDA, Gordon Akurugu, explained his jurisdiction was selected for the commemorative event of this world’s No Tobacco Day because it is prone to smuggling due to its large number of unapproved routes.

He said that a lot of detentions have been done within the last years, after a 24-hour shift system was introduced at the country’s borders to ensure uninterrupted surveillance.

He, therefore, reminded importers of the restrictions on importing tobacco and medicinal products through the land borders adding that “such products can only be brought into the country through the airport.”

Dr. Ruby Biaku of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana said her organization supported the outreach because of its care objectives of educating the public on tobacco usage, the effects of self-medicating, and the upsurge of non-communicable diseases.

She lamented the lack of awareness of one's health status, citing how non-communicable diseases are causing avoidable deaths among the citizenry, and advocated for periodic medical screening.

“We have partnered with them for this screening because we know non-communicable diseases are on the rise, hypertension, diabetes, and other conditions. And most people who have these conditions, properly half of them do not even know they have the condition.

“So, we have taken it upon ourselves to help them identify these conditions early and direct them to the right place for management”, she said.